[Professor Waclaw Kusnierczyk (1908-1997)--Pro Memoria in the century of birthday]. / Profesor Waclaw Kusnierczyk (1908-1997)--Pro Memoria w 100-lecie urodzin.

Waclaw Kusnierczyk was born in 1908 in Sniatyn. He received the degree in medicine at Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów in 1932. He did his PhD degree under Professor Zaleski supervision in 1938 at Jan Kazimierz University. At that time he concentrated his scientific activity on research on tuberculosis. In 1953 he obtained the title of second degree specialist in ear, nose and throat diseases. He became a chief of Otolaryngology at Urban Hospital No 4 in Katowice in 1960. Since then this eminent physician was working on tumours located in upper respiratory tract and the possibility of its endoscopic diagnosis at Silesian Academy of Medicine in Katowice. As one of the first he pointed out the negative influence of smoking cigarettes on cancer of larynx. It was Waclaw Kusnierczyk who implemented new priorities for integrated programs in patient care, research, education and cancer prevention. He has published widely in peer reviewed journals and has edited or contributed to many books. He has given many major lectures and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for his scientific accomplishments. The achievement of Professor Kusnierczyk were the valuable source of information for the physicians. In 1997, on the 31st of January he died in Katowice.

[Movement for the improvement of professional qualifications of Polish physicians from 1805 to 1952. Society and courses]. / Ruch na rzecz podnoszenia kwalifikacji zawodowych polskich lekarzy w latach 1805-1952. Towarzystwa i kursy.

The article focuses on the development of the post-graduate training of physicians from 1805 to 1952. The time-frame opens with the emergence of the first Polish society of physicians, the Wilno Society of Physicians, in 1805, and ends with the establishment in Warsaw of the Institute for Qualification Improvement and Specialisation of Medical Personnel in 1952. In the first part of his article, the author presents the development of medical societies and in the second--the formation of institutionalised post-graduate training. Two annexes have been appended: a listing of general-medical and specialist societies according to their year of emergence and illustrations complementing the text.

[Polish doctors in the Cieszyn of Silesia on the threshold of the 19th and 20th centuries (until 1920)]. / Polscy lekarze na Slasku Cieszynskim na przelomie XIX i XX wieku (do 1920 r.).

The Polish medical profession in the Cieszyn part of Silesia (the powiats of Bielsko, Cieszyn, Frysztat and Frydek) began to take shape in the second half of the 19th century. The doctors either came from the local, peasant population, or were migrants, mainly from western Malopolska. Because of the influx of Germans and Czechs, in search of employment, to the ethnically Polish Cieszyn part of Silesia, the proportion of the Polish population in this area fell from 74.5% in 1880 to 68.5% in 1910. The local population became progressively German or Czech. Out of about 30 Polish doctors belonging to the Polish community, only a dozen or so were still active by 1920. The doctors not only satisfied the Polish community's medical needs, but also their cultural, educational, political, economic and sports needs. In 1919, the Polish medical profession provided a medical bulwark against the Czech aggression and took part in preparations for the plebiscite in the Cieszyn part of Silesia. Following the partition of this region in 1920, those Polish doctors living in the part annexed to Czechoslovakia moved to Poland. Three Polish doctors remained in Zaolzie, and they began to reestablish a Polish medical group for the 100.000-strong Polish ethnic minority in the Zaolzie part of Czechoslovakia.